To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.
—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BCQuotes
Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.
—Anacharsis, c. 550 BCSic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
—Magna Carta, 1215Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990